News from the ground in Haiti

From Nicole Klaesener-Metzner in Haiti:

Feb 8: We´re finished with our work at the hospital in Port-au-Prince. I will be in the States on Thursday. More later!

Jan 27: Tomorrow we meet in Petionville at the WASH Cluster meeting which is most important meeting for water and sanitation. I called Andy Bastable on his cell phone (Head of water and sanitation for OXFAM) directly, and he gave me the information. It should give us a lot of direction. We´re quite free to do what we think …needs to be done, which is good for getting things done

Aside from the smell of diesel, the hum of generators and military vehicles, the whole place reminds me of Telluride on steroids–only there´s a lot less music and a lot more helicopters. Planes of every description come and go all day and night. I live in a tent with five other people and the Volunteer Ministries, w…ho are responsible for everything, are very nice. We all work together to make our camp livable.

I live at the airport–and I mean literally. I can walk out of my tent and across a field and right onto the tarmac. You can probably see our yellow tents (Google Earth) on the south side of the runway, toward the eastern edge. There are tents and gear everywhere–over an area of probably 40 acres or more. The whole complex is secured by the UN.

Jan 22: I am on my way to Haiti with a group working under the Red Cross doing water and sanitation. I’m leaving this morning. We don’t know how long we’ll be there but I will try to post anything I can if we have any kind of internet access (not very likely). I am glad to be able to go and I have good people with me. I’ll write when I can. Ciao!

Haiti teams

We’re finally getting reports back from our intrepid team on the ground at Haiti.

When the sanitation team of Andrew Larsen, Rodrigo Silva and Nicole Klaesener-Metzner arrived a few weeks ago, it was very chaotic.  Sanitation was a major problem which was threatening the lives of many individuals, including the rescue workers. There were almost no sewage systems even before the earthquake and the ones that existed were often compromised by the earthquake.

The team was asked to help with the general hospital in Port Au Prince.  Waste was everywhere, human feces mixed with body parts, syringes, medical waste of all kinds, spoiled food, packaging, etc. Piles of garbage surrounded the hospital. The lavoratories were completely filthy and unusable.

The team immediately got to work and were able to hire some Haitians to help them clean up the garbage, find trash cans, and create a place where different types of garbage could go.  The hospital and rescue organizations did not want to use compost toilets – it was felt that it was too complex to safely store the waste at that time, and the need for immediate sanitation solutions was so great, that they focused on getting portapotties delivered fast. But they did educate people about composting human waste in the process. The clean up was done with almost no materials available.  They used crushed urbanite to line floors and ground areas around the hospital and keep it clean; they found materials here and there to create areas to contain the garbage.

They cleared out areas piled with garbage so that sanitary hospital tents could be erected to house and treat patients. Patients were dying or losing limbs from wound infections that could be prevented with basic sanitation, so this action saved lives.

It was quite a challenge to find a truck or any equipment to get things done and when they were waiting, they helped distribute  food and clean water to thousands of displaced people from Port Au Prince.  The situation is becoming less chaotic but when they first arrived, they helped wherever they could to prevent deaths – the need to distribute basic food, water and medical supplies and set up ways to keep them clean was vital.

After the hospital project, they did an inspection and found no garbage lying around anywhere in the vicinity. They then started working on creating latrines for one of the camps where Haitians were staying. It was again a challenge to find any building materials but they made do. They taught the Haitians they were working with how to build compost toilet systems that would be safe and sanitary, so that this could be replicated in other camps.

They continue to install sanitation system and are now doing assessments and planning creation of full sanitation systems for several orphanages and other buildings in the area.  They are hoping that their plans of sustainable compost toilet systems will be approved by the major rescue organizations working on this project.  Our team has connected up and is working with with local NGOs, such as SOIL (oursoil.org), which specializes in compost toilet systems.

The intrepid water team led by Mark Illian from Nature Helping Nature has been harder to reach but they have continued to teach Haitians to filter their own water safely throughout the damaged cities and camps. This is vital work as locally available water supplies continue to be compromised by human waste and garbage on the streets of the city and in the camps.

Our newest arrival, Hunter Haeivilin, is a tropical food specialist and is assessing growing methods and the food supply in the area , and seeing where his expertise could best be utilized, as well as helping the sanitation and water teams where needed.

Andrew has returned to the states and is in the process of doing an analysis of what he learned at this disaster site, which may help future Permaculture Relief Corps first responders be even more prepared and effective at getting sustainable systems implemented. It is a design challenge to arrive in such a chaotic situation and make strategical design decisions.  There is no doubt the teams saved lives by choosing to arrive as first responders.  The need was huge, and they were in significant demand for their low tech expertise which was essential in that situation.  They are now moving into the second phase of disaster handling, where more long term planning can be done.

We are continuing to support the work of and coordinate with other groups, such as a permaculture team working in Limbe, a rural area, to grow food (http://noramise.org), and two builder’s groups planning sustainable, inexpensive, low tech and fast building techniques for the area.

Donations all go directly to the teams on the ground in Haiti for supplies and equipment – we are all volunteering our time on this project.  Please go to permacultureguild.org/donations to contribute (note this is our partner non-profit for this project).

Update on Haiti

Another plane will be leaving from Miami in the next few days for Haiti. Needed are medical personnel, sanitation experts and water experts.

Our sanitation team is working near a main hospital, installing much needed sanitation systems in that area.  Last we heard, our water team was headed to Leogane, which is almost totally destroyed, to teach people to filter their own water with a number of low tech methods. One of these is the Sodis method, using a plastic bottle and sunlight to kill pathogens; another is a sand filter, also effective at ridding water of pathogens.  Solar ovens also kill pathogens. Combinations can be very effective.  The major risk right now is from human waste or toxins entering the water supply.

The sanitation team is building compost toilets which separate liquid and solid human waste.  The solid waste will decompose much faster when separated, and once all pathogens are eliminated, it can be used as fertilizer for fruit trees and similar food sources, which keeps the system as a closed loop and eliminates the waste stream.  Urine can be used immediately to fertilize plants – it is sterile, and when diluted with water, becomes an excellent source of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous.  By using this waste stream to grow food, we protect sensitive ecosystems and human systems from pollution and we can accelerate the growth of a future food supply.   These systems can be safely built with available materials – they are low tech systems and can be fairly rapidly replicated all over the cities and camps.

We have received some generous donations which enable us to fly a number of individuals to Haiti, so please pass this on to anyone who may be interested.

Haiti update

We now have two low tech water specialists (from naturehealingnature.org) and three sanitation experts on the ground in Haiti. They came from Texas, Utah, Austria and Portugal and flew out of planes leaving from NY and LA, provided by Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers (disaster first responders, who chartered planes to send volunteer ministers, medical personnel and water and sanitation experts to Haiti).  The sanitation experts took enough materials with them to build a demonstration sustainable latrine which will service 1000 people per day.  The human waste will be safely and securely composted and will eventually become fertilizer for food and fuel crops.    The water experts specialize in filtering water with found materials, like sand, plastic bottles, etc.  They’ve done this in villages in Senegal, Peru and other countries and are very resourceful.  We haven’t heard from them yet but we will update again as soon as we do. Your donations helped make this occur – thank you!

Twelve more permaculturists are interested in traveling to Haiti as soon as another plane becomes available.    We’ve also been contacted by a couple of midwives who would like to go as well as other medical personnel.  Some of our permaculturists also have medical training – they are very much needed there.  The city of Jacmel was wiped out 80% and they badly need sanitiation, water, and medical treatment there.

We are currently in negotiations to send equipment on several possible boats leaving from Florida for Haiti over the next 3-4 weeks. We’d like to stock the boats with equipment to build more compost latrines, water catchment systems, seeds for crops, and even possibly earthmoving equipment to create swale systems in badly eroded farmland.  Hundreds of thousands of people are leaving Port Au Prince to return to the country.  This is a good thing, because they can become self-sufficient via farming in the country (which is how things used to be), but because farmland has been strip mined and otherwise abused, it is essential that permaculture techniques such as keyline and swale systems be implemented, if reforestation and rehabilitation of farmland is to be successful.

Eventually, the people of Haiti will want to rebuild, and we hope they will use more sustainable building techniques, like quincha mejorada homes in Central and South America, which have withstood earthquakes well in Chile. These houses are made mainly from bamboo and earth, things that are readily available or could grow very quickly in Haiti (bamboo can grow up to 24 inches per day in some cases).

Quincha mejorada:

http://www.solucionespracticas.org.pe/publicaciones/pdf/CONSTRUYAMOSCONQUINCHAMEJORADA.pdf

Bamboo in Haiti:

http://www.oreworld.org/bamboo.htm

We are creating a number of partnerships with organizations already working in Haiti and have contacted an official in the Haitian government and briefed him on what we are doing.  Our long term plan is to provide education via already existing organizations that will assist in sustainable rebuilding efforts.

We are now partnering with non-profit Permaculture Guild in New Mexico so your donations will be tax deductible.  All donations are going directly to getting people on the ground in Haiti, we are all volunteering our time to make this happen.  More info soon!

Cory

A Solution for Haiti

Currently, Haiti needs water pumps desperately because the earthquake has broken many of them.  This is a life threatening situation.  A permaculture solution would be to use the existing energy (humans) to handle the situation with a bicycle or teeter totter (see saw) pump.  Gaviotas in Columbia has piloted these and they are now used in Africa and many other places.  A teeter totter pump could be created out of existing materials lying around…..

Update for Haiti Project

We have three sanitation experts who want to go to Haiti to set up safe sanitation systems, and we are gathering equipment to go there as well. They will teach Haitians how to set up sanitation systems from existing resources (even rubble from collapsed housing can be helpful) while they are setting up systems.  One of them has set up systems for thousands of people.

We plan to use a variety of systems including trench systems which separate liquid and solid human waste – the urine can be used as fertilizer for crops which can accelerate growth in badly degraded areas and the solid waste will compost safely much faster than if mixed with liquids.

We are working on putting together a team of water filtration, capture and reuse experts as water is the #1 issue there right now that is life threatening. The wells have been compromised by the quake and many of the pumps are down as well, so they need pumps.

We continue to work with groups in Little Haiti, Miami, to raise funds for sustainable relief efforts.

Your donations will pay for plane fares, equipment and food for the rescue workers.

We have created a database for volunteers for both now and future rebuilding efforts and are in planning stages for long term rebuilding, including education, building, planting sustainable food (food forestry, agroforestry, polycropping, etc.  We have gotten a number of offers to donate seed and equipment to help create food and water security. Haiti used to be a major rice exporter and had enough food to feed her people.  Politics and economic manipulation destroyed their food industry and we want to help bring it back.

An international web site has been set up to coordinate activities at permaculturehaiti.org.  If you’re interested in volunteering, donating equipment or other things, please see the blogs and email list at that site, as it is now the central hub for permaculture solutions for Haiti.

To a much brighter future for Haiti,

Cory

Help for Haiti from Permaculture

We are seeking funding to send permaculturists to Haiti to help with the relief and rescue effort.  Below is a letter of introduction to funders.  There are two permacuturists thus far who we would like to assist in traveling to Haiti and we have the call out to many others.  If you would like to donate, please go to http://earth-learning.org/index.php?option=content&Itemid=77&task=view&id=60

This is our fiscal sponsor for Haiti and Pine Ridge projects.

13 Jan, 2010

To those reaching out with heart to Haiti:

I am a sustainability designer, and I’m currently teaching a course on urban sustainability in Little Haiti, Miami.   I am writing regarding the disaster in Haiti, in a plea to allocate some of the rescue monies towards sustainable recovery.

Permaculture design stands for “permanent culture” and “permanent agriculture” and is the science of designing systems to prevent disaster as well as recover from it.

I worked as a volunteer in the Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles and though in no way comparable to the magnitude of disaster in Haiti, there were a number of lessons learned.  One of these is that people are very receptive to creating new lives when given a strong hope factor that they can sustain themselves.   They are overwhelmed with loss and if they can be shown how they can recover quickly and do even better than before, it energizes them to not only help themselves, but others as well.  I’ve since assisted from afar with disaster relief in SE Asia and New Orleans and lessons learned from those places is that it doesn’t have to take years or decades to rebuild, if you have an affordable, realistic, strategical design strategy early in the game.   This is where permaculture comes in, because that is what we do best.

Permaculturists have helped recovery efforts in a number of areas of the world, such as the tsunami in SE Asia:

http://permaculture.org.au/2006/02/01/idep-newsletter-one-year-after-the-tsunami/

And the Macedonia refuge camp of 43,000 where Geoff Lawton designed water catchment and storage to eliminate flooding, and gardens, compost toilets, passive solar strawbale houses and food forests were also created.

http://northeasternpermaculture.wikispaces.com/Cool+Permaculture+Examples

An ongoing Haitian project is the building of compost toilets, which will be very needed in the disaster sites.  We are contacting them to see if they will be able to train others to build very inexpensive models of these as it will greatly alleviate the danger of sanitation problems as well as rebuilding the devastated soil of the region, but meanwhile, people can make a donation directly to their site.

http://oursoil.org/

As well,  there will be issues of water supply, food supply and shelter which permaculture can solve in the most sustainable way possible.  There is much confusion after a disaster, and permaculture design can help bring order in a way that will assist more rapid recovery, because it will put the elements of long-term sustainability there from the beginning.   Permaculture offers simple, low tech solutions to create a safe, sustainable water supply, to grow food rapidly from existing resources (cultivating local edible “pioneer” plants which do well in harsh environments, and gradiently incorporating a stable, sustainable, mature food system while those plants sustain people), creating sustainable shelter rapidly from existing resources (earth, fiber, rock, etc), and producing energy from available resources.  Our shelters are very earthquake and fire resisitant – we design systems to withstand disaster.  This technology is essential for a place as economically devastated as Haiti, and this is even more true after a disaster of this magnitude.  Why not rebuild in a way that will improve overall conditions for the long term?  Wouldn’t it be nice if a phoenix could arise from the ashes?

Some of the projects which permaculturists can design and implement are:

Short Term:

Building sewage systems, composting toilets, compost and recyclying centers, rocket and solar stoves, temporary shelters (perma-yurts), water catchment and filtering, and plant nurseries.

Rocket and solar stoves are key because the major ecological problem in Haiti which causes huge hardships from many angles is deforestation for fuel. Solar stoves use no wood and rocket stoves, which can be made out of old cans and pipes laying around, use almost no fuel and can cook with twigs.

Correct diversion of sewage, human waste, and water can substantially contribute to rebuilding farm land in the area – the idea is to create the conditions for long term self-sufficiency and abundance with even our short term handlings.

Long Term:

Permanent, low cost, earthquake resistant natural buildings, water storage, earth works, renewable energy, permaculture food forests, broad-scale reforestation, farms, aquaculture systems, and community buildings such as schools and health centers.

We are currently working via a worldwide network of permaculturists to bring resources to Haiti, and several permaculturists are interested in traveling to Haiti to help with the rescue and relief efforts, but need funding to do so.  We are in contact with disaster handlers in the area who they can coordinate with for maximum effectiveness.  There is a permaculture project existing in Haiti that we are working to connect with as well.   If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me – I am also willing to meet with potential funders to answer questions personally.

If you want to donate now, please use the “Haiti Donations – Donate” Paypal button on the right hand side of this web page.  For past projects we’ve funded, please see the Pine Ridge Lakota reservation article under “Projects.”   We will use initial funding to get people there on the ground and most needed resources such as equipment for building the short term items needed.  Whenever possible, we use existing resources in the area that are free or very inexpensive – permaculture is very effective at getting the maximum return for energy invested, so you will know your money is going to a good cause.

We will add donors to a newsletter that will specifically keep you updated on what we are doing in Haiti.

To an always better future,

Cory Brennan

Course number for Miami course college credits

We finally have the course number to get three college credits in Earth/Environmental Sciences at FIU for the Miami PDC.  The number is EV 4995 – students can register with FIU and apply credits to any Florida University!

Miami PDC earns college credits from FIU

FIU is offering 3 college credits for the Urban Design Course being delivered at Earth N Us urban farm in Jan/Feb 2010.   Check with FIU for more info on how to enroll – these credits can be transferred to any Florida college or university.

The mainstream needs permaculture, so we’ve made it a practice to work with universities whenever it is feasible.  Permaculture integrates the sciences with the humanities, and brings sciences together in a way that enriches them. Where else can you study climatology, biology, physics, microbiology, urban planning, cultural studies, economics, anthropology, archeology, and much more, in one two week course and find it accessible, enriching, entertaining, and enjoyable?

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